Wagner (disc 2) – middle disc of superb biopic

This is the second disc of a three disc biography of Richard Wagner.

The series has an incredible cast headed by Richard Burton and Vanessa Redgrave and other major players are Lawrence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

The second disc follows Wagner down and out struggling to get Tristan and Isolde finished and performed, and the miraculous meeting with King Ludwig of Bavaria, who is portrayed here more or less as a nutter (well he was a pretty peculiar character).

The dialogue is obviously culled from Wagner’s letters and Cosima Wagner’s diaries, monumental tomes of dull adoration and recording every mundane action of her husband. The film does its best to cope with the somewhat static situation by dramatising meetings between high officials delightfully played by Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson as they try to temper the wilder excesses of King Ludwig.

This is a transitional period in Wagners life and Burton brilliantly portrays him in all his obnoxious, selfish reality betraying everyone that befriends or tries to help him. Vanessa Redgrave is superb as Cosima Wagner.

The scenes portraying the conductors von Bulow and Hans Richter with their orchestras struggling to come to grips with Wagner’s revolutionary scores are fascinating.

Like many classical music lovers I struggle to understand how such a revolting man could have produced such unique, wonderful music